Women, Work And Sexual Politics In Eighteenth-Century England - 9781138179714

Taylor & Francis

A reassessment of women's experience of work in 18th-century England, and the effects it had on industrialization and other economic, social and technological changes. It also examines how this influenced marriage and relations between the sexes. > The author offers a reassessment of how women's experience of work in 18th- century England was affected by industrialization and other elements of economic, social and technological change.; This study focuses on the household, the most important unit of production in the 18th century. Hill examines the work done by the women of the household, not only in \""housework\"" but also in agriculture and manufacturing, and explains what women lost as the household's independence as a unit of economic production was undermined.; Considering the whole range of activities in which women were involved - including many occupations unrecorded in censuses which have, therefore, been largely ignored by historians - Hill charts the increasing sexual dis